Girl Gamers and Fighting Games
(Mirrored from my Xanga)
EVO2k9 wasn't even a month ago and I remembered thinking something while watching that sausage-fest on live stream. There was a distinct female voice chanting moral support and shouting advice from Justin Wong's corner during the Street Fighter 4 finals, albeit off-camera. It had me wondering why there weren't more girls cheering at the event. Or rather, why fighting games in general gather less female gamers than other kinds of games. As a guy trying to psychologize the other sex, I can only conjecture as to why this is the case.
Firstly, fighting games straddle the boundary between the mainstream and esoteric. Only the recent release of Street Fighter 4 brought renewed interest in the genre, and so this smaller overall fanbase results in a smaller pool of female players.
An execution barrier also makes these games less accessible to entry-level players than other genres. Fighters almost always require button sequences or combinations to perform single attacks, a setup that seems horribly counterintuitive to the uninitiated. Single-button normal moves and the aforementioned special moves have to be taken into account along with movement and defense, which can prove frustrating. These control-oriented stopgaps, which seem to mix action games with rhythm games, may seem asinine to the uninitiated and make fighters come off as needlessly self-absorbed.
Many fighting game franchises boast character histories and backstories that rival established comic book mythos, but too many serious players argue this is only pretext for the intricacies of gameplay. Mileage tends to vary as far as these stories go, with a lot of plots seeming pretentious or half-baked to many fans, and I'm sure this is off-putting for female gamers who want something deeper.
On that note, fighters are more guilty than any other genre of female objectification. The Dead or Alive series is a prime example, as is the widespread increase of bust size with each iteration of the Soul Calibur games. I imagine that girl gamers want an avatar that presents themselves as attractive, but not at the expense of dignity. Some female characters are particularly fleshed out (no pun intended) and well developed (natch) in terms of plot, but these details are often tertiary to their role as another selectable character.
Still, these complaints can be relevant to both sexes and fail to explain specifically why girls are averse to fighters. Perhaps the answer can be found during the peak of fighting game popularity; of any genre still recognized today, fighters are the most heavily connected to their arcade roots. Arcade games were still dismissed as a nerd's past time for all their popularity in the 90's, and also became the game of choice for many pre-pubescent and adolescent boys from low-income families that couldn't afford a console. Given this (falsely, but understandably negative) association, most girls would only be found playing Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat on a system belonging to a friend or relative. Even now, when many of the older competitive players have already retired, this guy-centric, faux/quasi-ghetto mindset of inside jokes, trash-talking, and "I got next" still perpetuates the forums and online lobbies of most fighting game communities. And for female gamers it can be a big turn-off in atmosphere.
Basically, I think the problem is that community began more guy-oriented than others and numerous deterrents exist keeping XXers away from the genre, much less approaching it with any sense of seriousness. There are exceptions to the rule (say Dead or Alive tournament player Kasumi-chan, or the woman cheering Wong at EVO) but they tend to be too far and few in my experience.
Why do you think there are less female gamers who play fighters hardcore than in other genres? And if you're female, what's your take on fighting games?
EVO2k9 wasn't even a month ago and I remembered thinking something while watching that sausage-fest on live stream. There was a distinct female voice chanting moral support and shouting advice from Justin Wong's corner during the Street Fighter 4 finals, albeit off-camera. It had me wondering why there weren't more girls cheering at the event. Or rather, why fighting games in general gather less female gamers than other kinds of games. As a guy trying to psychologize the other sex, I can only conjecture as to why this is the case.
Firstly, fighting games straddle the boundary between the mainstream and esoteric. Only the recent release of Street Fighter 4 brought renewed interest in the genre, and so this smaller overall fanbase results in a smaller pool of female players.
An execution barrier also makes these games less accessible to entry-level players than other genres. Fighters almost always require button sequences or combinations to perform single attacks, a setup that seems horribly counterintuitive to the uninitiated. Single-button normal moves and the aforementioned special moves have to be taken into account along with movement and defense, which can prove frustrating. These control-oriented stopgaps, which seem to mix action games with rhythm games, may seem asinine to the uninitiated and make fighters come off as needlessly self-absorbed.
Many fighting game franchises boast character histories and backstories that rival established comic book mythos, but too many serious players argue this is only pretext for the intricacies of gameplay. Mileage tends to vary as far as these stories go, with a lot of plots seeming pretentious or half-baked to many fans, and I'm sure this is off-putting for female gamers who want something deeper.
On that note, fighters are more guilty than any other genre of female objectification. The Dead or Alive series is a prime example, as is the widespread increase of bust size with each iteration of the Soul Calibur games. I imagine that girl gamers want an avatar that presents themselves as attractive, but not at the expense of dignity. Some female characters are particularly fleshed out (no pun intended) and well developed (natch) in terms of plot, but these details are often tertiary to their role as another selectable character.
Still, these complaints can be relevant to both sexes and fail to explain specifically why girls are averse to fighters. Perhaps the answer can be found during the peak of fighting game popularity; of any genre still recognized today, fighters are the most heavily connected to their arcade roots. Arcade games were still dismissed as a nerd's past time for all their popularity in the 90's, and also became the game of choice for many pre-pubescent and adolescent boys from low-income families that couldn't afford a console. Given this (falsely, but understandably negative) association, most girls would only be found playing Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat on a system belonging to a friend or relative. Even now, when many of the older competitive players have already retired, this guy-centric, faux/quasi-ghetto mindset of inside jokes, trash-talking, and "I got next" still perpetuates the forums and online lobbies of most fighting game communities. And for female gamers it can be a big turn-off in atmosphere.
Basically, I think the problem is that community began more guy-oriented than others and numerous deterrents exist keeping XXers away from the genre, much less approaching it with any sense of seriousness. There are exceptions to the rule (say Dead or Alive tournament player Kasumi-chan, or the woman cheering Wong at EVO) but they tend to be too far and few in my experience.
Why do you think there are less female gamers who play fighters hardcore than in other genres? And if you're female, what's your take on fighting games?